Easy Running

30 minute easy run. It was already getting warm.

There was a fire up on Montebello Road yesterday. It is under control but it burned 300 acres of scrub. No one had to evacuate. No property damaged. The saving grace was even with the heat and dry conditions, there was very little wind.

Easy Running

30 minute easy run. It was already getting warm.

12 x 100

I met Jake at WVC. We did a slow big campus loop, ran some strides and then he went off to do 12 x 400 while I ran 12 laps of 300 jog, 100 stride. I seemed to do most of the 100's in the 19-20 second range with a few down in the 17's towards the end. Then we ran around campus. Jake cramped up half way around and we jogged and walked back to our cars.

A weak 7 miles at best.

No complaints on my side of things. I am back on my program to get under 13 minutes for 3200 meters. I just to need to rebuild slowly and see if I can get there by years end or sooner. Jake was dead legged at coffee and was headed home for a nap. My legs were tired but nothing like his.

The morning was warm as summer belches its last flame. Frankly things have so mild that I can endure this. It will be fall soon enough. I will look forward to the cooler running weather. It should help me get my times down.

12 x 100

I met Jake at WVC. We did a slow big campus loop, ran some strides and then he went off to do 12 x 400 while I ran 12 laps of 300 jog, 100 stride. I seemed to do most of the 100's in the 19-20 second range with a few down in the 17's towards the end. Then we ran around campus. Jake cramped up half way around and we jogged and walked back to our cars.

A weak 7 miles at best.

Dead Legs and Dead Head

I am going to have to back off again, being dumber than dirt. I was on the verge of getting under 13 minutes for 3200 meters and blew it again snatching defeat from the arms of victory. Yeah, I was bored with my training. Those 9-10 minute training miles were driving me crazy but in the last year my two fastest runs came on slow running with some 100's thrown in to the mix. That and the time trials were getting me there. I can run one hard day a week of something and that is it! I have to choose what it is. Last week I ran 3 semi-hard days and by yesterday I was pretty beat up.

I will eat crow and go back to what I was doing (except for one hard day a week). I may run in the hills one day to handle the boredom.

All I know is that I have to turn around and quick.

Whoa!

I went out of the house Monday morning at a good clip. I was surprised that my legs actually felt good but it didn't last long. I ran my two mile loop to the college and began to feel pretty tired as I hit the track. MY HR, which was around 150, zoomed up to the 160's and stayed there. By the time I was ready to head home I realized that I had to slow down the place. There was nothing much in the tank. I just pulled back the pace and dropped my HR to under 150 and got in.

5 miles

At noon I met Rick at Burgess and ran 33 minutes (flat). It was warm and our run was ugly. We cruised the streets on Menlo Park mostly running on concrete and asphalt when we could get it. Afterwards we went for lunch at MacArthur's Park and I drank several Arnold Palmer's and had pasta.

Mid-Tempo

I took two days off resting so I could pace Jake this morning. I ran the 3 (++) mile club warm up and then stayed with Jake during Farwell. It's basically a very hilly 3.54 mile course that once upon a time I ran in 18:22. Today it was 26:43. Roughly equal to a sub 23 minute 5K. Jake looked stronger than he had in months but he was far behind the guys he wants to go head to head with. We were in the low 7:30's though and for my purposes that wasn't bad. My legs were a bit tired but I never struggled. Afterwards we ran the campus loop.

Maybe 8 miles total

Long Day

Jake and I met over at the Old Forbes Mill in Los Gatos. This is what it used to look like. Now only the lower building in front is still standing.

We then ran an easy out and back for a warm up. Then we went up again at a what was tempo for Jake and about 70% for me. The time was 22:07. On the last up and back Jake went out hard and I just followed. My HR quickly went up to 75% of max and stayed there for most of the run except for a weird bad patch of about 2 minutes where it dropped down into the 130's and 140's. I couldn't figure out whether the HRM was acting up or whether there was some sort of interference that caused a poor signal. One thing was for sure. During that 2 minutes I did not feel very good and thought about dropping out so maybe my body was sending "The Big Message". I actually dropped back about 10 yards behind Jake. After that everything equalized and I began to quickly feel much better. I pulled right up alongside of him and began to flow along. On the way back I kept the HRM at 75% of max plus or minus and ran the loop in 21:07. Jake was struggling and had dropped back about 10 seconds.

The highlight of the run back was passing the Los Gatos Girls Field Hockey team running up the trail and carrying their sticks. There must have been 50 or more of them. We passed one girl limping back to the school. I asked her if she was OK and she smiled saying that the bottom of her foot hurt. Sounded like plantar fascia. I told her that she needed to work on having a more pronounced limp to convince her coach that she was really injured.

I am now on a three day training program. The main elements are the following:

1. Long run at long tempo pace. So this is not easy.

2. Short tempo run of 2-3 miles.

3. Mid tempo run of 3-4 miles.

4. Intervals at roughly 5K pace.

My plan is to do 2-3 of these runs every week and not run easy, jog-type recovery days but just walk or take the day off. So every run has a purpose. It is the Run Less, Run Faster in approach but with some modifications. Perhaps more effort based than exact time based. I just don't trust all of their recommended paces.

My primary motivation was around the fact that I was simply not enjoying my running. As slow as I can run was beginning to get to me. So I will become a workout whore.

Run Less, Run Faster

I did not begin today's run under optimal conditions. This was my 3rd day in a row running. I ran harder than normal both Saturday and Sunday. They weren't hard days but they weren't easy either. This morning I jogged over to the track did some easy strides and then ran 3200 meters in 14:37. This is called short tempo. It wasn't that easy. I then jogged back. Maybe 5 miles total.

At noon I met Rick and we jogged an easy 30 minutes running from Burgess park into the edges of Stanford University. Ugly run. Had to deal with lights and traffic. For Rick and I ugly runs are the norm. We love it.

I am taking Tuesday off. I need it.

Another Pacing Job

I went with Shel to the Dolphin Race up at the Marina Green in SF. I ran another 3 miles trying to pace him to a sub 26 minute 5K. Actually the goal was to find out where he was. The course turned out to be long (closer to 3.22 miles) but it still worked out to a mid 26 minute 5K equivalent. So two short falls this weekend. Neither Jake nor Shel hit their goals and I ran in the grey zone (too fast for easy and not fast enough for tempo) on both runs. I am running with Rick on Monday at noon plus whatever I decided to do in the morning. So that will be 3 days in a row. I will take tuesday off and get back to every other day running by mid week.

I have always liked the Marina district. If I had to live in SF, that is where I would want to be. Shel told me that he could not be single and live there because he would get into too much trouble. I asked him why. He said too many nice young women around. I replied that we were too old to play in that game. He came back with his take on this subject. If you have money you can play.

Handicap Run

Today was the club handicap race which is 3.06 miles. Last year I ran 20:39 as a tempo run (and was elated) but this year I ran unofficially and paced Jake. We went through the first mile in 7:30 and it was downhill (for Jake) from then on out. I stopped at the 3 mile mark running 23:13 with my HRM mostly in the 70-75% range. With the warmup I probably got 5 plus miles.

The run was inconsequential to me but gave Jake another message that his training is too hard. Of course he read it as he isn't training hard enough day to day. I read it as he is doing way too many miles and is running too hard on the days he goes for quality. As for me, I just don't have the mindset to run hard very often so I didn't mind doing pacing duties no matter what the pace.

In the old days I would have blasted this course under 16 minutes and have been in a dogfight with guys like Jake, Dave, Tim, Bill and John and it would have been bloody. I am a million miles from being in that shape anymore.

Breakfast at the Collins' house was good as always and it was just fun to sit around with, have a nice conversation, tell off color jokes and enjoy the coffee.

We're All Different

I drive over to Los Gatos and ran 55 minutes with Jake up and down the dammit trail. I had also run 6 minutes at the house to shake things loose. So in the spirit of everything counts when I move forward, I totaled 61 minutes. Volleyball girls showed up for pre-season practice. Some of them were very tall and already had cellulite. I mean they are only in high school. jake and I had a discussion about dating tall women when we were single. My tallest girlfriend was 5'9". But we were free falling here. If we were young and single and confident, would we go out with 6' tall women? Jake said that if you think small you'll come across as small. I agree. But we're 5'6" at best these days. 5'7" back in "the day".

I went out again in the late afternoon and ran another 3 miles of 800 meter repeats with the club. I was last or close to last on each reps. 8:30-9:00 pace.

The day totaled somewhere around 9 miles. Now I get to rest until the handcap run Saturday morning. "No more running," he said convincingly. I don't feel as strong and fast as last year at this time but I know I am fit as I can possibly be for my age and mileage. 62 has weighed on me. I can feel the difference that a year has made and yet, perversely, I also believe I can be faster than I am now. I mentioned to Dennis Kurtis who is 53 or 54 that when I ran the times he is now running (low to mid 17's for 5K in my mid to late 40's) I could not do the workouts that he is presently doing. Well, we're all different.

Double Four

I ran a double 4 today. 4 slow miles in the morning and another 4 in the late afternoon. The afternoon run was done in warm conditions. Not hot like baking or sizzling. Just warmish. Maybe 80 degrees. I kept close to an 8 pace during this run. It wasn't hard but it wasn't easy either. I had to focus on staying on pace. I wasn't just skimming along. Hard to believe that a few years ago this might have been a 7:30 pace and a few years before that, close to a 7 minutes flat. I can see how far I have fallen away from being able to run a steady tempo. I get the age part but I also get that years of staying away from steady or tempo have sped up the process. I have no idea if the afternoon run did squat for me but I enjoyed it more than the usual slow-slow pace that my HRM forces me to run.

I doubt that the run was good for me. Not as a stand alone workout. Age graded it was a low 25 minute 4 miler back in the day. Since I often ran a 6:30 pace back then, a 33 minute 4 miler would have been a more accurate age graded equivalent. I would be betting the farm to try to run faster during my daily runs. If I didn't break I would more than likely be faster IN TRAINING with no guarantees that it would carry over to racing. Since I don't really race, it might be worth the attempt. I would still have to face the effect on my time trials. I might end up being faster or I might have the Jake effect. In the Jake effect a runner does races and trials at about the same pace as they train at.

Bottom line: The runner is overtraining.

The key is to seek something in between, adjust and then move down, adjust and so on....

The other is to let the speed come to you which means letting the HRM dictate the pace. I generally follow this path but not purely. I have been sneaking in speedwork which I already know has the opposite effect on me than is intended. I generally get slower. If I follow the path (THE PATH) then I do get faster. Not faster than I was last year or the year before but faster than I was last month or the month before. If this all is confusing the reality is that I am tired of slow training (maybe bored) but if I stick to it I get faster. If I train harder, I get slower. MUCH SLOWER.

6 x 600

I paid the price for drinking way too much wine last night. I drove over to the club workout which was 12 x 600 relay on the track. Each runner runs 6 of them and the recovery is the time it takes their partner to run their 600. Plus you have to walk or jog 200 meters to get ready for the hand-off. I was feeling pretty woozy and sort of out of it but I did a long warm up of close to 3 miles and then went down to the track and offered to pace Jake. He was shooting for a 6:30 pace which is 2:30 per 600.

Jake, I said, that is 3:15 800 pace. I had not seen him run that fast in a few years.

Rich, I am not running 800. I am only running 600.

OK, so we took off and I stuck to a 2:30 pace as exactly as I could. I figured I had better be able to do this given that this is goal pace for 3200 meters somewhere down the line. It had better feel easy. Not easy, easy. Just very doable.

And after shaking the cobwebs out, it began to feel very normal. I glanced at my HRM and it never was much above 171 until the last one which spiked to 175. Very low level AT, at least perceptually. Jake was in back of me struggling in the mid to high 2:30's but finally got down to his goal time on the last one.

A new girl was on the track. Her name was Wendy. Very tall, leggy and rather slender. She had an Elvis tote bag and I kidded her about it. She smiled. Afterwards she was talking to club members about joining. I am not asure she'll actaully join. She was walking and jogging and despite her body build she looked like she was not in running shape. But the club let her know she would be welcome. But then women are always welcome. Especially tall, leggy women. Danny and I agreed that he could get on my shoulders and then he would be about her height. My guess....6 feet.

Afterwards Jake, Dimitri, new guy..Jon and myself jogged around the campus.

Probably close to eight miles overall.

Lesson learned: Chardonnay is not a good pre-workout beverage of choice.

Speed Dating

Friday was an off day but I decided to double up anyway. A mid morning beakfast with friends followed later on by an interview with a perspective client for an interim HR VP job. I arrived at the clients at 2 pm and was led into a conference room. The CEO wasn't there yet so I idled by going over some notes from a meeting with another client. Finally the CEO walked in. He looked intense right off. He was looking at a copy of my resume.

Are you consulting now? he asked.

I said, yes and for the past 5 years.

What makes you want to come back inside?

I don't, I answered.

Oh. I only want people who are looking for full time regular jobs. He seemed to be chewing on his words.

That's not me I said flatly.

I smiled and he smiled. We exchanged business cards.

5 minutes had passed. I was in the lobby and headed for my car.

Something inside my gut told me that even if this had gone an hour, I would not have wanted to work for him. There was something rigid there. Not inept. Just rigid.

Double Day

Doubled on Thursday keeping the pace easy during both runs. I admit to feeling sluggish during the morning run. My legs were heavy and I dragged through the run. More than likely a result of Tuesday. The afternoon run was better. My legs felt good but it was warm and my HRM kept me from going very much above a jogging pace. I was soaked in sweat by the time I arrived home. A ten mile day though if anyone is counting.

Running With The Middle-Agers

I ran for about 45 minutes this morning and came back in the late afternoon and ran another 4 miles (give or take). Most of my afternoon run was a warm up with the club Tuesday night group which included Jeff, Tom, Mike and Becky. My legs felt good despite the back to back of running Monday and Tuesday. I just floated along hardly glancing at my HRM. Once, after we had come up a bit of a long hill I noticed that it was reading 155-56 but it dropped back down under 150 when we flattened out.

These runners are all faster and younger than I am. They are all about where I was when I was in my late 40's or early 50's. This is about their age range are too except Becky who is 41. We talked Bill Walsh and Niners a bit and then they switched to discussing the upcoming cross country season. I could feel the tug of wanting to be part of this but then I saw Danny down on the track and I came back to the reality. They moved on to some sort of hill repeat workout and I stood around with Danny and chatted about his upcoming 60th birthday. I was fine with it. But I could see the road back. It is the same as it was in 1975 when I began to train with John and Jake. Attach yourself to faster runners and hang on until you are faster. Believe you can run faster and then you are faster. It doesn't happen quickly. It is a change in a runner's belief system. You have to be smart about it but after awhile the momentum just carries you through.

Same Old

I ran for 45 minutes keeping my HRM in the high 130's and low 140's. It was a cool overcast day and my legs felt good.

I distrusted the tiredness I felt Saturday. It may be the intervals (never good for me). I need to get faster at the slower runs to get faster overall. I prefer the time trials over reps. They are more like what I face in races. I am too far down the road to trust an approach that has never worked well for me. I am beseiging 13 minutes for 3200 meters. A modest goal but one that I have not attained for years. I need to focus on that.


Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.

"Henry V" (5.3.44-51)

Saratoga High School

Dimitri and I met at the lower parking lot at the college and jogged the 2 miles over to Saratoga High School for a workout. We did a few striders and then tried to replicate last week's workout of 4 x 1200 meters starting every 8 minutes.

I was totally flat during the first one and dropped at 600 meters. There was simply nothing in the tank. Whether it is was physiologocal of psychological, it made no difference. I felt like I was hanging on.

I did jog a lap and a lap and half just to finish off the 1200. I decided to try running 800 meters on the second one and this went well. We came through 2 laps at 3:17 and frankly and totally unlike the first one, I felt I could have gone on. When we started our 3rd I felt in a groove and as we came through 800, I said "I'm going run to 1000 meters." Then when we hit 1000 I said that I was going on to the finish. We ran 4:54 and frankly by this tiem I felt fine. The last one was another 4:54 and I ran relaxed throughout. Afterwards I wondered why the struggle early on. It didn't make sense.

We jogged back to the college and our cars.

I am accutely aware that these are resembling intervals. I promised not to do these and yet here I am breaking that promise. I need to think about this. I want to run under 13:13 sometime in August. I need to focus n that.

Easy 4

I jogged an easy 4 mile recovery run this morning. I want my legs to be in good shape for tomorrow's workout.

9 Miles With Striders

I drove over to Los Gatos High to run with Jake. I guess I can now call this Wednesday's with Jake.

He was up to his old tricks running 3.5 miles before we ran. We used to call this a secret workout. As we headed up the trail I could see that he was tired (there is this way he breathes) but I figured rather than worry about it, I would just keep moving along. Our warm up loop was 28 minutes which was 4 minutes faster than last week. Then we ran a hard loop in just a hair over 22 minutes. After that one I left Jake to run his last go around while I headed back to the track for 8 laps of 300 easy, 100 fast stride. The track was suddenly inundated with a class of prepubesent girls who quickly took over the 3 or 4 inside lanes so I decided to run my striders on the backstretch where there was less congestion. I averaged 17-18 seconds on the fast portions and my legs felt excellent. I then warmed down making my total somewhere close to 9 miles.

No Wednesday afternoon club workout again. Recently, the morning running has been just hard enough to insure that if I go back out and double, I will be doing so on dead legs. I will go out again. Just not now.